New Live Hawkwind Recording (Ha Ha)

[Douglas Pearson]

On Fri, 27 Apr 2001 11:21:17 +0100, Sam Kirwan <samantha.kirwan at NTL.COM>
wrote:
>Maybe I'm being sentimental but I do not believe that Hawkwind would be
>where they are today without Nik Turner.  He is a demigod (which includes
>suitably insane) and his mentality has inspired me for 15 years now.

Many of my inspirations from the world of rockandroll have been the
suitably (or more-than-suitably) insane ... Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson,
Arthur Lee, Skip Spence, Sky Saxon, Mitchio Kadotani, Nick Drake, and of
course Robert Calvert (actually, compared to most of that crowd, Nik's a
Wall Street accountant!).  (Although just because someone's crazy doesn't
necessarily make them talented or good - case in point Wesley Willis.)

>Hawkwind will always need Dave Brock

I agree with those who say it's not REALLY Hawkwind without Dave Brock, but
that doesn't stop me from enjoying something like the Strange Daze 98 set
or a good Nikwind gig.

>but without Nik Turner......it just
>doesn't bear thinking about - any albums he's not on are as ever, brilliant
>but for pure psychedelia - Nik, Nik, Nik.

I think that Nik adds something to the band that Dave (by definition - as
being bandleader) is unable to: the CHAOS factor.  As bandleader, Dave is
responsible for keeping it together, and has done so admirably for 30+
years (and hopefully will for years to come).  But Hawkwind have always
been at their most interesting (IMO) when the forces of chaos are
generating creative friction by, in effect, working against the structured
leadership ... sort of a combination of gravitational (keeping it together)
and centrifugal (flying off into uncharted space) forces.

Nik's not the only person who's made that contribution to Hawkwind.
Certainly Lemmy, sometimes Harvey, especially Bob, and now Ron, have played
a similar role.  (That's one of the reasons I think Ron has been a great
addition to the band.)

A few weeks ago, Arin was asking me why IitBotFtbD is one of my least-
favorite Hawkwind albums, and I forgot to give this as one of my reasons.
The early-90s trio lineup was certainly talented and creative, but in a
small lineup, there's little room for chaos, so I find the CHAOS factor to
be somewhat dissapointingly lacking in the albums between 'Space Bandits'
and 'Alien4'.

>Sorry.... big soft spot for lunatics of this world.

... and the anarchists ...

    -Doug (who prefers 82-84 HW to 79-81 or 85-88 HW)
     ceres at sirius.com